


We're Idiots

by Vic_writes01



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Aged-Up Losers Club (IT), Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Bisexual Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier Are Parents, F/M, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Good Parents Maggie & Wentworth Tozier, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Sex, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Parent Richie Tozier, Sonia Kaspbrak Being Terrible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:07:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21908668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vic_writes01/pseuds/Vic_writes01
Summary: Multi-chapter fic that follows Richie and Eddie finding each other after 10 years apart not only because of college and work but because of Richie believing that he made a mistake that could've compromised his friendship with Eddie.When he was 21, Richie accidentally getting a girl pregnant and ends up as a single parent gaining full custody thanks to lawyers as the girl didn't want anything to do with the baby. The reunion between him and the rest of the Losers goes surprisingly well. Christmas day is the official day of the Losers Christmas (held at the Tozier's) and to celebrate Bev and Ben's engagement. Only what happens between Richie and Eddie? You'll have to find out <3
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Maggie Tozier/Wentworth Tozier, Richie Tozier x OC
Comments: 3
Kudos: 57





	1. Loser Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Based on my prompt list from Tumblr

"Hurry up Buttercup, Derry's like what 3 hours or something drive," Richie calls to his 6-year-old daughter, Naomi. 

"I'm coming, dad!" The young girl calls back.

His apartment in Portland is in a quiet area, he may be a famous stand-up comedian who is also occasionally on SNL and in a new upcoming sitcom but the paparazzi isn't on his tail like half of the other actors out there. It's great, Naomi is hidden away from the world and no one needs to know how bad of a fuck up he is, both as a dad and as a boyfriend whose first time having sex led to an unwanted pregnancy. Besides, he wants to keep Naomi far from his public as possible, he still takes her to the park, mall and movies but he's cautious of who may be watching.

His apartment's walls are littered with photos of him and his high school friends as well as his parents and most importantly, Naomi. It's a small two-bedroom apartment but that's all he needs, it isn't like Naomi and him take up a lot of space with furniture and toys, besides its's cheap rent. His car is the newest Toyota corolla model that his parents had given him as a graduation gift for college.

Richie gathers up a few snacks for the road as well as a few homemade CDs that Richie combined with his old favourites and a few Disney songs for his daughter. There isn't a moment when he thinks about the adoption that almost happened, he couldn't even fathom what he would've done if he had done such a thing. Would she come looking for him in the future? Would she hate him? All these questions loop in his mind but whenever he sees Naomi's sweet innocent face, all those thoughts drift away because he knows he made the right decision. 

Since they'd be away for the holiday, Richie didn't see it necessary to decorate his apartment fully, he allowed for a small tree and Christmas lights that could remain on the deck after the holiday period because of trends. Sure Naomi was a little upset but she saw the logical side, why have a huge Christmas if you won't be home to enjoy it?

"Daddy, come on! I'm ready!" Naomi squeals running down the hallway with her Spiderman suitcase dragging behind her. She's wearing the warm clothing that Richie had picked out for her, a stunning pink trench coat and jeans with a black sweater underneath and a white wool scarf wrapped around her neck. Richie would be lying if he said he didn't have help from his mom when he had to start buying clothes, nothing matched or he would by sizes that were too big or too small.

"Okay sweetheart, let's get this show on the road." 

The 27-year-old throws his backpack strap onto his shoulder and carries out his suitcase and their evening clothes for the party tomorrow night. He flicks the key in the hole to lock his apartment before loading the trunk of his car with their suitcases and evening wear. "Right jump in and buckle your seat belt," Richie says to his daughter.

"Yay, road trip!" Richie chuckles at his daughter's excitement, to be honest, he couldn't blame her. She loves driving with her dad, the stories, jokes he tells and the games they play. She loves it. 

"Mimi, in that bag, there are three CDs each with an hour on them, can you hand me the first hour, please?" Richie says as he starts to pull out of the complex's carpark. Naomi, in the back seat, digs through the bag looking for the CD case with 'Hour 1' written on the front. Sure enough, she quickly found it and handed it to her dad, he swiftly placed it into the car's CD player, without taking his eyes off the road. He knew that music would keep her interested and alert, Naomi never had thrown a massive tantrum since she was 4. She is smart, like Richie, and well-behaved all thanks to Maggie's disciplined routine, she loves his stand-up comedy and often performs them for her (without the crude jokes and swearing).

Maggie and Wentworth love her, they spoil her to bits. Maggie Tozier always longed for a daughter (but loved Richard nonetheless) and always takes the young girl out for a girls trip whenever Richie's parents are visiting or when Richie takes Naomi to visit her grandparents. Either way, Maggie takes her shopping or goes to see a movie. The two bake together and Maggie does her hair and nails since she believes that she's too young to go to a nail salon. Richie loves it; if he has a tour and leaves Naomi in the caring hands of his parents, he knows that his baby girl will come home with masses of shopping bags full of clothes and baked goods that Maggie and Naomi cooked the day before. His mother does all the clothes shopping for him, all he needs to do is create a great _matching_ ensemble that he almost always has difficulty with.

For Christmas, he goes a week earlier so that Naomi can help with the cooking at the decorating.

"Daddy, can you tell me about your friends?" Naomi asks.

"What would you like to know princess?" Richie asks and locks eyes with his daughter in the rearview mirror for a second before looking back at the road.

"Anything, how you met, why you don't talk?" Richie smiles weakly. "Why are you sad, daddy?"

"I'm not sad, baby." He takes a deep breath and thinks back to his childhood, something he doesn't often do because of that sweet hypochondriac, Edward Kaspbrak. 

"Okay, daddy."

"Now, Stanley Uris, or aka, Stan the man or Birdman," Richie says as if he's introducing a spy like in those kid spy shows/films. "He was my first ever friend, we met in kindergarten, he's a real sarcastic piece of work who's wit is dry and loves birdwatching."

Richie ponders over the time that Stan had taken him birdwatching, Richie had agreed because he thought it was you know, checking out women, he was wrong and was taken deep into the woods near the Quarry and the Barrens. Stan handed him a pair of binoculars and was pointing out and giving a brief description of every bird that the two saw. The young Trashmouth had no interest in the birds but was glad that Stan was happy for once instead of being stuck up.

"He's the one with the curly hair right?" Richie nods, he often talked about his old friends, giving explanations as to who's who but never giving a name.

"Next we have William Denbrough, or Big Bill, or Bill, call him Bill." Richie pauses for a second. "He was my second best friend, we also met in Kindergarten, he used to tell awesome stories back in the day and now he's that author that I like."

"The one hugging the girl?" 

"No, that's Ben, Bill's the one beside Stan." Richie continues, "Ben, we met when he was getting beaten up by bullies, we call him haystack. He's the one getting married to the girl. Ben's a nutter for buildings and history. Loves it, I guess that's why he's an architect." Naomi was told about bullying a year ago when she was picked on by another girl at her kindergarten because Naomi didn't give her her food (no tradezies, no anything) and the girl stole it anyway leaving Naomi hungry and upset.

So Richie sat her down after they got home and explained what bullying is. It's one thing to trade food but to steal, it's bullying in the way that kids know-how, before they get to playground level bullying in elementary school and then physically and backstabbing bullying in high school. 

"So the girl is Beverly?

"Yes, she's the only one that I've kept in contact with. Beverly met us when we saved Ben from the bullies. There's a cliff that the boys and I used to jump off of and we always chickened out until I would push Stan off. Beverly showed us up in the Summer of 1989." 

Naomi couldn't picture her dad, 6 years older than she was, cliff jumping or getting beaten up by bullies. She often commented on his crappy sense of style back in middle school and then his crappy grunge-rock style in high school. But she still tries to imagine the story that her dad just told her. She sees a young girl running past 5 boys and jumping into the water below, the thought makes her chuckle.

"Mike is the coolest and most chill one out of all of us. We also met when he was getting beaten up by bullies. He runs the library and has applied to become the Mayor of Derry." His daughter lets out a small 'wow' a sign to say that she's impressed. 

"And the last one?" 

Richie looks at his daughter in the rearview mirror again, he hunches his shoulder and stops the music completely. "Eddie, Eds, Eddie Spaghetti, short stack," Richie croaks, his eyes start to tear up. "he was my best friend, but I did a stupid thing after graduation and I haven't spoken to him or the others since."

"He's the one you're hugging? What happened, daddy?"

"Yes and I'll tell you when you're older, sweetpea."

Richie turned back on the music and out blasts David Bowie's 'Heroes' through the speakers, the thought of Eddie reenters his mind, remembering all the times that he had snuck in through Eddie's 2nd-floor bedroom window because he missed him. He misses the laughs they shared, the accidental touching not to mention the hammock in the clubhouse. 

****

It's the final hour and Richie starts to question why Bev and Ben wanted to go back to Derry for the engagement party? All any of them could ever talk about was leaving Derry and starting a new life away from the horrors that Derry portrayed. He looks back to see Naomi sleeping in her car seat, her head leaning on the soft cushion of the booster seat. It's cute, he never thought that a kid, his kid could ever look cute but she did. Naomi doesn't look anything like her mother, she had Richie's dark chocolate brown curly hair and his luscious blue eyes. Thankfully she didn't have his eyesight, he didn't know if he would ever be able to handle anything again if his daughter came home one day and said that she was called 'four eyes'. 

Sure enough, he sees the 'Welcome to Derry' sign with the large black letters 'F' and 'U' written in the bottom left corner that he and Bev spray painted together when they left town 2 days after graduation. Beverly aunt was moving to Tampa, Florida, and Richie was moving out of his parents' house to portland from Derry.

Richie veers off the road and heads down a dirt road that leads to Mike's farmhouse since that's where they are all staying. As he turns into the driveway, 3 cars come into view. An expensive one that had to be Bill's, a range rover that he immediately recognises as Bev's and a convertible that had to be Stan's because Eddie would not drive around in that thing. Has anyone ever heard of melanoma? Jesus! Where's the skin protection?

"Baby? We're here." Richie says as he parks the car beside the range rover, Naomi all but stirs in her seat, he smiles widely and gets out of the car and moves 'round to the opposite side of the car to get her. 

"Richie?" 

"Ah, Michael! Thank God, I need some help," Richie says. "I'll explain as soon as we get in. Is everyone in?"

"No, we're waiting on Eddie, he's taking a taxi and he said he should be here in 5 minutes," Mike says and as he gets closer to Richie he sees a young girl in the car. 

"She's mine, don't worry as I said, I'll explain everything." Richie picks her up, groaning a little at the sudden weight and quickly repositions her in a better one so that it's comfortable for the both of them.

"Daddy?" Naomi asks as she rubs her eyes.

"We're here pumpkin," Richie says. "This is Mike." Naomi turns her head to face the man who's grabbing the luggage, she quickly jumps from Richie's arms and hugs the strange man.

"Hi Mike, I'm Naomi. You're the cool one, right?" Mike chuckles at Naomi's forwardness and Richie takes their luggage from Mike and heads inside with Naomi and Mike in tow.

The place hasn't changed at all since Mike's grandparents died a few years back, the farmhouse became his. Richie always imagined that Mike had dressed it to his liking instead of all the old 50s furnishings and layout. The only difference is the crockery and utensils in the sink, they are modern looking rather than those with old floral patterns on them. As Richie nears the living room, he hears the faint sounds of Beverly's laughter. 

Mike finally catches up to Richie and pats him on the shoulder. "When you said you were bringing a plus one, I thought you meant an actual woman or man so I gave you the office with a blow-up double mattress. I can get you two single beds if you want?"

"No, give it to Eds, is he bringing anyone?" 

"No, he isn't and are you sure?" Richie nods and leaves the luggage with Mike, he takes his daughter's hand in his and makes his way into the living room.

As soon as he walks in, the laughter stops, Bill and Stan look as though they're about to beat up Richie (which he doesn't care about, he deserves it) but Ben and Bev smile. The 4 of them not acknowledging the young girl who's hiding behind Richie's legs. "Congratulations you two, 'bout fucking time," Richie exclaims.

"DAD! Language!" Naomi yells sprouting out from behind Richie and into the clear view of 4 out of the 7 Losers.

"You - You have a kid?!" Stan cries. "What the hell?!"

"Do Jewish people believe there's a hell? Since when?" Richie retorts, his old behaviour comes back as quickly as it left.

"Shut up and explain yourself, Trashmouth," Ben says.

"I will when Eddie arrives," Richie says and sits down beside Bev with Naomi placed on his lap.

And as if on cue, a taxi pulls up and Mike's out of the house like a rocket, gathering up Eddie's big suitcase. "Same old Eds," Richie mutters sadly.

"Beverly, what happened between daddy and Eddie?" 

"Naomi!" Richie scolds, the young girl just shrugs and looks to Bev with hope.

"Don't know sweetie," Bev responds. "Your dad left without saying a thing about it and Eddie wanted to pretend that it never happened."

After his stupid mistake, he ran away to pack for 2 days straight then left the same time as Bev, both stopped their cars at the sign to spray paint like they always said they would before going their separate ways. Neither of them talking about why Richie had stopped talking to the group in the lead up though the thought was a heavy rain cloud that covered the two of them ready to pour out. Nobody knows what happened besides Richie and Eddie and neither one of them wanted to tell it. Richie doesn't know why Eddie didn't tell anyone, it would be something that Eddie would want to laugh about and join in with the Bower's gang considering his personal beliefs thanks to Sonia's way of life.

Eddie walks into the living room with Mike following closely behind, the short hypochondriac man takes one look at the young girl and starts laughing. "A kid Rich?! Good lord, I feel so bad for you hun," Eddie exclaims through a fit of laughter. Though his laughter dies down when he's met with 5 disapproving looks and his eyes lock onto Naomi. He sees the dark curls that he fell in love with almost 2 decades ago. 

"Eddie ... Can we go talk please?" Richie urges. "In private?"

"There's nothing to talk about, you kissed me, told me you loved me and then ran away." Richie felt 6 pairs of eyes staring at him. This is why he didn't want his daughter to hear it, she wouldn't understand and probably ask questions and she's far too young to be learning about that sort of thing. The women and men he dated, after Sally, weren't good enough for him to take home to Naomi. He never wants to get her hope up of having another dad or a mom unless he is deadly serious about this particular person. But the only person he's ever been so sure about is Eddie.

"I - "

"If you say anything about my mother, I swear to God - " Eddie cuts himself short. "Can you please tell me why you have a kid?"

"Mimi dear, can you go wait in the kitchen for a second?" Richie asks, Naomi hops off his lap and heads to where they came in. "I dated around and I met this wonderful woman, Sally, when I was 20. We dated for like, 6 months and the first time we slept together I got her pregnant. She didn't want to have an abortion, which I get, so she was going to put her up for adoption." The minute he said adoption, Richie starts to tear up. "At first I had agreed but as soon as I saw her gorgeous little face, I backed down and said I'll take her and broke up with Sally immediately after. Mimi doesn't know and I plan to keep it that way because she may have been an accident but I love her with all my heart."

"So you're single?" Eddie questions, Richie nods and gets up to get his daughter. Naomi comes running in and about to take her spot back on her dad's lap when Eddie beats her to it, so she climbs onto Eddie. Normally Richie would scold her for doing that to a stranger but it's the Losers, he knows them and knows that they'd protect and cherish her.

Eddie's question is quickly forgotten and they all start talking again. "So that's why you haven't spoken to us?" Mike asks. "You kissed Eddie so you dropped off the face of the earth?"

"Mike, the way that Derry was and still is, and you know what Mrs K was like! She made Eddie believe that gays and bisexuals were an infection," Richie states. Sonia was a force to be reckoned with, Eddie could spend days, weeks, months boarded up in his bedroom if he came home with cuts or bruises. 

"Richie I never - I am gay 'Chee," Richie looked up at Eddie, his eyes widening, out the corner of his eye he sees Bev pull Naomi towards her. "You left before I could do or say anything."

He needs to go, he couldn't, not again but he does. "I'm sorry, I'm just going for a drive. Bev, watch her, I just need to be alone." Richie pulls his car keys from his pocket and races to his car needing to be far from Eddie as possible.

****

Eddie watches as Richie's car pulls out of the driveway, he looks to the others who just shrug. "Is there something else Eddie?" Ben asks. 

"He didn't give me time to say it back," Eddie mutters to himself, not audible to anyone in the room, looking down at his lap. "I went to his house after but Maggie told me he hadn't gone home yet, I checked his room to make sure she wasn't lying but he wasn't there."

Eddie hadn't met anyone that lived up to his expectations or standards that Richie had. Nobody was funny enough, nobody liked to banter or annoy him, the nicknames he was given on dates were too generic. Richie's were unique no matter how much it annoyed him. And as he looks at Naomi, who looks as though she wants to beat him up, he can't help but see so much of Richie in her. His nervous mannerisms and the way she sits, it's too much of Richie. Except she's quiet or maybe it's because she's in a room full of strangers and she's a little nervous.

"Hey Naomi, you want to know what your dad was like back in the day?" Eddie asks the young girl hunching over a little so that she felt comfortable. She nods, smiling a little. "He was funny. Well, I at least thought he was funny, these guys didn't."

"That's because he was a Trashmouth!" Stan states the obvious.

Eddie starts to tell Naomi all the times that Richie had snuck into his room in the late hour of the night. How they would sit on Eddie's bed and read comics, watch movies or listen to music until 2 or 3 am before falling asleep. It became a habit for almost every Friday, skipping the Fridays of Bev and Richie's monthly drinking nights in high school, though he didn't tell her about alcohol and the two getting drunk. 

He tells her about prom night and how he and her dad slow danced together in a hallway, away from all the bullies and homophobes. Eddie claims it was one of the best nights of his life still to this day. Naomi begs for a joke that Richie had said when they were kids but the Losers all said no, that they aren't jokes for a 6-year-old to hear. She doesn't understand why but Beverly said that when she is older, she will be the one to explain and not one of the many men in the room. 

As Eddie told Richie's daughter all about her dad, Bill notices something in Eddie's eyes. He only ever remembered seeing it when Eddie and Richie still talked and after what Richie had said, it all makes sense. "You were in love with him too?" Bill says, not a stutter falling out. "Eddie you must - "

"I don't have to tell him crap! He broke my heart Bill besides I can't just waltz in. He has a kid Bill!" Eddie states and he looks at Naomi, her sweet blue eyes looking up at him.

"He still loves you, you can tell Eddie." Bev states. "He called you 'Eds'. If he didn't you know he would've called you either 'Edward' or 'Eddie'."

Bev is right, whenever Richie was ever pissed of with Eddie so much, all Eddie could get him to say was 'Edward' or 'Eddie' it was never a nickname or a joke about his mother. That is how Eddie knows he's overstepped the boundary if Richie calls him anything else but a nickname. Naomi looks up at Bev again looking her dead in the eyes and Bev instantaneously sees the adoration that this little girl has for her.

"Daddy says that you're my godmother," Naomi says out of the blue. "Like in Cinderella." Beverly can't believe it, her ears are ringing and heart is pounding, almost like it did when Ben proposed to her. Why didn't Richie tell her? But then again kids do say wrong things or exaggerate ideas, maybe Richie is thinking about it? He would've told her if she was Naomi's godmother, right?

Mike's phone goes off, interrupting the awkward silence that Naomi caused in the room. "It's Richie," Mike states and heads out to take the call. 

****

One hour later and Richie finally greets everyone with his presence. "What did I miss?" Richie asks, "I can tell by your faces that something happened."

"Am I Naomi's godmother?" Beverly asks, Richie looks to Naomi who simply just shrugs.

"Oh little monster," Richie laughs. "I thought we agreed to wait until dinner tomorrow night?" Naomi again shrugs and puffs out a little yawn. "Now that I gave Eds the office, where's our room. She needs a nap." 

Mike nods and leads Richie and a tired Naomi down the hall to the den where they all used to hang out as kids. In one corner was the old Pacman machine and right beside that was the old pinball machine. Three beds lay side by side; two of them for Bill and Stan. Mike quickly made the bed and Richie laid Naomi down to sleep, "Have a good nap baby, we're going for pizza in 3 hours, I'll see you then, okay?" Richie says softly.

"Yes, dad, love you," Naomi slurs.

"Love you too, sweetpea," Richie says before he and Mike slip out of the room. 

Everybody in the living room can see how much Naomi means to their best friend. They had never seen him act so responsible in the time that they have known him. Richie had also been an impulsive and irrational being, calling things the way he saw fit, he was smart but didn't want a boring job where he'd never get to laugh. That was the Richie they love, the irrational and irresponsible asshole who never once thought about kids but here he is with one that he loves with all his heart.

Stan, being the only one who knew about Richie's crush on Eddie a decade, sees Naomi as someone who Richie loves more than he would ever love Eddie. She's the reason he wasn't acting out to annoy Eddie, he didn't once swear but as soon as Richie comes back from putting Naomi to sleep he's back to his old self. The bird watcher signals for everybody to leave Richie and Eddie alone as they bicker over the armchair when Eddie had sat in Richie's lap voluntarily only a couple of hours ago.

Eddie nor Richie notice the others had left and continue bickering and wrestling over the armchair. And the pair fall to a heap, on the ground; it isn't until Eddie ends up straddling Richie that the two stop and notice that the others aren't there. "Fuck," Richie mutters. "Where'd they go?"

"Probably left since we were probably annoying them," Eddie says, he hastily removes himself from on top of Richie and walks out to the kitchen to see the others sitting around the table chatting away.

"Ah, finished flirting have you?" Bill asks. "About time."

Then Richie walks out, his hair dishevelled, "You two had sex in my living room?" Mike exclaims.

"God no!" Richie cries. "Although I do like you being on top." 

"Beep beep asshole!" Eddie butts in.

Richie smiles widely and goes to grab himself some water from the tap. It was easy to come back and go back to his natural ways before he had Naomi but he knows that he has to tone it down so that he's still responsible and not crass like he was back in the day and on the stage. He doesn't want her to pick up his language or his dirty talk especially when she doesn't understand it. 

He finally takes the opportunity to check Eddie out, even though it's cold outside (and will most likely snow) Eddie's wearing one of Richie's old sweaters with a pair of skinny jeans. Richie simply smirks, he knew how much Eddie loved that sweater back when they were 15, and now as a 27-year-old, the sweater fits Eddie perfectly just as it did to Richie 12 years ago. 

No matter how hard he tries to no think about it, Eddie is still cute, well more specifically, he is still hot as fuck. 

"Shall we head to the Barrens and Quarry tomorrow? Then head to the clubhouse?" Ben asks.

"Sure, if only we came during Summer, then we could've gone swimming," Bill states.

"Well, we could go ice skating?" Stan says.

****

A few hours later the Losers and Naomi find themselves roaming the streets of Derry. "Daddy, my legs hurt," Naomi whimpers, without a word Richie whisks her off her feet and put her on his shoulders. Eddie, who's walking behind, looks to Richie with the utmost adoration in his eyes. Oh, how he wishes he was holding Richie's large hand, swinging their arms as they walk down the streets.

"We should say hello to Mrs K," Richie pipes up.

"No, absolutely not," Eddie scolds.

Mike takes the turn down Eddie's street and waltz's right up to the front door and knocks quickly. Richie stands with Eddie, Naomi still on his shoulders, he rubs Eddie's back before pulling him in for a side hug. 

"Eddiebear? And you brought your ... friends?" Sonia exclaims running towards her son and engulfing him in a bone-crushing hug. "Richard."

"Mrs Kaspbrak," Richie spits back. 

Sonia is about ready to T-Pose Richie but Eddie clears his throat, stopping the staredown between his former best friend and his overbearing mother. "Guys let's go, you're not welcome here and I certainly do not want to be back here," Eddie says sternly. "Goodbye, Sonia."

"That's 'mom' to you Eds," Sonia bellows.

"Richie Tozier, my _boyfriend_ , can only call me that." Richie immediately takes Naomi off his shoulders passing her to Bev and Ben as he watches Sonia's face grow redder by the minute. The others watch as he runs down the street and takes a left and Eddie knows that he's heading to his parents' house. Eddie is quick to follow and just as he rounds the corner, sure enough, Richie is jumping through his bedroom window of the single level house.

Maggie and Wentworth Tozier are completely oblivious to their son jumping in through his window but well aware of their son's friends standing on their porch. If it wasn't for Naomi, they'd all still be stuck on the front porch trying to convince them that their son is in the house. Eddie waltzes through the main living space and towards Richie's bedroom, as he pushes open the door he sees Richie tear eyed and looking for a CD, the one that Eddie made him specifically. Naomi bounds from Bev's grasp and straight into her dad's. "What's a boyfriend, daddy?" His daughter asks him.

"Baby, can you give me and Edward some privacy? Same to all of you," Richie says, Naomi looks at Bev who holds her hand out for Richie's daughter. "What was that back there?" 

"Richie, I - " Eddie stops himself. "You never gave me a chance to say or do anything, as soon as your lips touched mine you left screaming 'I love you and I'm sorry' upon your way out."

"I didn't want the rejection." Richie takes a quick deep breath. "I have been rejected so many times, I can handle it but if it came from you, I couldn't."

Eddie takes a single step closer to Richie, the man in front of him pauses, so he takes a step further, Richie tenses. "What if I wasn't going to reject you?" With that Eddie leaves, leaving Richie confused.


	2. Christmas Day (‘04)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the jumpiness but I still hope that it's great though :))

The snow had fallen during the late hours of the night, coating the ground in a thin layer of the white substance. As any sane 6-year-old does, Naomi wakes her dad on Christmas morning and completely forgets about the two strange men on the mattresses beside them.

Richie hears Stan groan, throwing a pillow over his face. "Come along princess, don't want to wake the Grinch on Christmas," Richie whispers into his daughter's ear. She follows him out quietly to the kitchen, trying to not make a single sound. 

The clock on the wall showed 7:30 am but to double-check, Richie checked his phone showing the same time and a message from his mom: _Did you and your friends want to come over here for Christmas dinner?_

He makes a mental note to tell the others that this offer stands and starts pulling things out for pancakes and puts on a pot of coffee and checks to see if Mike has orange juice and sure enough there is with a label on it saying: _FOR EDDIE & EDDIE ONLY_. In Mike's need block letters. "Want to help with the pancakes, sweetpea?" Richie asks, Naomi nods ferociously and Richie pulls up a chair for her to be able to help.

He cracks a couple of eggs into the bowl for her as she begins to mix them in with the flour, milk and sugar. Her grandma taught her well, there’s no mess and everything is measured perfectly. Well as if Richie put the ingredients in, there would be more sugar and flour than anything.

Richie never really enjoyed baking but he did enjoy cooking. Sweet things just aren’t his cup of tea. 

The coffee is ready and quickly fixes 6 cups of coffee for each of the Losers (besides Eddie). He pours a small glass of OJ for his daughter before getting started on the frying.

”Daddy? Can I flip one?” The small girl beside him asks. “Granny lets me.”

”Does she?” Richie smirks but his daughter gives him a look, a look that reminds him so much of Beverly. “Alright then.” 

Naomi wraps her small hand around the spatula and Richie places his on top before his daughter smacks his hand away. “You’ve spent too much time with my friends.”

Eddie walks out just as the young girl is about to flip, she acknowledges Eddie, forgets what she's doing and suddenly there's a yelp of pain coming from her mouth. The hypochondriac races back to his room in search for his first-aid kit and Richie is running cold water over her wrist, cooling the burn right down. Less than a minute later, in record timing, Eddie comes back with his first-aid kit, he takes over for Richie and already sees that it's the 2nd-degree burn. "I'm going to rub in some burn cream, okay?" Eddie soothes, she looks up at her dad, who's rubbing her back, and he nods back.

"Do you know how many times this man had to patch me up?" Richie asks and she shakes her head, "Countless, I kept getting beat up or I would purposely trip just so that I would get to be patched up by him." 

Naomi looks back to Eddie and gives him to okay to put the burn cream onto her wrist. "It'll sting a little," Eddie says and takes a small scoop of the cream and gently rubs it into the blister that's slowly starting to form. It breaks Eddie's and especially Richie's heart when they see the young girl cringe in pain and the 'doctor' knows that Richie is probably blaming himself. "'Chee, stop it. It isn't your fault, I distracted her."

"I still let her take the spatula, Eds." 

Richie takes over the cooking while Eddie keeps Naomi entertained, playing a game of chess with her. Just like Richie could, with every dingle Loser, she beat him in 4-7 moves. She gets bored after 2 more rounds and Eddie decides to move onto blackjack (without the gambling), it would challenge her. "No, no way, you are not teaching my daughter the way to gambling at 6 years old. Wait until she's 15 then you can," Richie says as he places a large plate of pancakes on the table.

"Daddy, what's gambling?" Eddie pulls a face and quickly changes the game to 'go fish'.

"When people steal your money for fun," Richie replies sharply. "Don't worry darling, Eddie plays a game without such nonsense." 

Eddie deals out the cards for a round of go fish as they wait for the others to wake up, Richie sipping on his scolding hot black coffee and Eddie and Naomi on their simple glass of orange juice.

****

Later that day, Richie takes his daughter around town, showing her all the places that he used to hang with the boys and girl. Even though his parents took her almost everywhere the town has, in terms of shops, they never took her to where all the kids hung out. So before the Losers all go down to the barrens, Richie decides to take Naomi to all his favourite hang out spots. 

Naomi doesn't know much about her dad, considering he never liked talking about the Losers. But since reconnecting, Naomi has learnt more than she could ever bargain for and she's become an honorary Loser. She joins in on the banter and name-calling but she can't help notice the strange tension between her dad and Eddie. All she can think of is 'what is kissing?' 'what is love?' 'why did daddy run away?' 'why did that make Eddie upset?'

She is about to ask all 4 questions but they reached the old arcade, that once was thriving with kids but now sits abandoned. Richie squeezes through an opening in the cracked window and Naomi follows through. All the old games still stand, the Street Fighter game, that Richie was obsessed with back in the day, is still in good knick. "I played this all Summer long in 1989, drove Eds crazy," Richie says, hitting a button lightly. "We have this in the games room at Mike's place. I'll show you how to play it when we go back."

Richie and Naomi leaves and makes their way down to the Aladdin Theatre, in the heart of Derry. "Richie, glad to see you out and about, not sure you should be though," Sonia Kaspbrak says in passing.

"That's okay Mrs Kaspbrak, just wanted to show my daughter all the places that I banged your son in," Richie spits.

"Ha! As if, he wouldn't dare undermine me like that!" Naomi just stands there watching her dad turn red, she has never seen Richie mad, all he ever did was get stern and drop his tone a little. Richie has never raised his voice at his daughter or around his daughter and whatever this strange woman had done, it is all about to change.

"Sonia, you made him believe that gays and Bi's were an infection, you kept feeding him placebos to make it seem like he was sick. Sending him to the ER every time he got a cut or a bruise. You locked him up when he broke his arm in '89. You're the one that's sick. Not me, not my boyfriend." Richie yells, "Good day to you Sonia." Richie huffs and drags his daughter away, his grip starts to get tighter around her tiny wrist.

"Ouch! Daddy, you're hurting me," Naomi yelps.

"Fuck! Shit! I am so sorry!" Richie yelps and quickly removes his hand and leads her to the Quarry.

Today just isn't shaping up to be a great Christmas, he had already managed to hurt his daughter twice! One because he let go of the spatula and her, having the attention span of a goldfish at times, got distracted and burnt herself and not to mention, working himself up when confronting Sonia. He has just won the award for 'bad parent of the year'. 

He hopes that it gets better rather than worse. 

****

At the Quarry, Richie leads Naomi down the path, away from the cliff, and towards the Barrens. "We'll come here later for ice skating," Richie points out. "But up on that cliff, we all used to jump from the top, into the dirty water below."

"That looks high," Naomi points out.

"Yeah, it's why none of us jumped first. We used to play a game or sometimes I'd just push Stan."

Naomi laughs, she likes Stan, he's funny. She loves how he gets mad at Richie and yells 'Beep beep'. She had always wondered where his nickname 'Trashmouth' came from and now she knows that it came from Stanley Uris. Naomi is led further and further away from the frozen-over quarry and over to where the clubhouse should lie but Richie doesn't want to go in just yet, wanting to wait until the others are with them. 

Naomi doesn't let Richie's sparkle in his eyes go unnoticed and she doesn't let it go unheard, "Dad, I've never seen you this happy, not even when you won your first Emmy."

"Oh sweetheart, I'm happy all the time," Richie replies.

"You light up when talking about Eddie or when you see him, daddy."

Richie stops and looks at his daughter, he wants to tell her everything. The way he found out about his feelings for Eddie, why he fully stopped talking to Eddie, what sexuality means, but she's too young. He wants her to enjoy her innocent years before puberty happens and that means allowing her to grow, but she's smart and knows how to work a computer. It's all down to Richie after what Eddie told him in his childhood bedroom last night. 

The whole short walk back, Richie can only think about Eddie. With the ball in Richie's court, he needs to decide if he kisses him again or asks him out but this time it isn't simple. Bring Eddie into his and his daughter's life would bring up questions about sexualities and Richie isn't ready for that conversation with his daughter. He feels like he may just fuck it up and force her into becoming a lesbian or bi instead of letting her decide for herself, not to mention will open a whole other can of fish that is not the topic for a 6-year-old girl, just yet at least. 

As Richie enters the house the smell of gingerbread filling his nose, 6 Losers look up from the 3 gingerbread houses in front of them. "You didn't invite us?! How could you!" Richie yelps dramatically and places a hand over his heart. "Oh, by the way, Eds, bumped into Sonia."

"Great, just what we needed!" Eddie exclaims and hands Naomi a piece of the house with the most icing and candy on it. 

"Thanks, Eddie," the young girl replies and makes her way down to the room where she and her dad are staying.

"I promised I'd teach her how to play Street Fighter," Richie chuckles nervously. "I may have made a mistake."

He follows her down to the den and watches as she stares up at the arcade game, her eyes full of admiration and curiosity. She hits the button as her dad had done in the rundown, abandoned arcade in town, but this time it springs to life. Richie can only hang back in the shadows as he watches his daughter struggles with the old technology but he finally steps away and hands her four tokens, putting them into the machine. Naomi looks up at him in awe and watches as he shows her how to play. 

The pair are too into the first round that they don't hear Eddie come in, he's meant to tell them that they are all heading down to the Quarry before the clubhouse instead he scratches a note to say to meet them at the clubhouse. Allowing his best friend to bond with his daughter over a stupid game that Richie was overly obsessed with and heads back to the others.

****

A couple of hours later, Richie and Naomi find the note that Eddie left and immediately sprint down to the clubhouse. Richie heaves open the hatch and climbs down the ladder and Naomi follows, both of them turn 'round to face 6 Losers. "How was Street Fight?" Bev asks.

"So good! I beat dad!" Naomi exclaims.

"Darling, that's sarcasm," Richie whispers. "I'll explain later."

Just like it always has been since the Summer of '89, Eddie sits in the hammock, Mike on the swing, Bill and Stan talking in the corner and Ben and Bev by the opening in the ceiling. Richie gravitates towards the hammock, sliding down beside Eddie's legs. "Naomi, come here sweets," Mike says patting his lap, the young girl bounds over towards Mike and jumps onto his lap and starts talking to him about his job at the library. 

Richie takes the opportunity, while his daughter's distracted, to make a move on Eddie. He slides his hand past the friendly accidental touching to full-on gripping Eddie's thigh, keeping his hand there, Eddie looks at him as if he's scared but everyone in the room knows there's tension. The hypochondriac quickly changes position so that he's now sitting right beside Richie. "Ball's in your court now Eds," Richie says, gripping Eddie's thigh higher than he should be but before the danger zone.

Richie reaches down, under the hammock to where he hid a comic, years ago. The hammock rocks slightly from the shift of Richie's weight but he manages to grab it before the fabric tips them out. As he readjusts his positioning with Eddie now beside him, Eddie takes the opening to wrap an arm around Richie and cuddle into his chest. Now, this doesn't go unnoticed for the others in the room, all but 1 knows what's about to go down. 

Bev's silently hoping that Richie kisses him as he had done in that very hammock 10 years ago. Even though he never told her what happened she always thought it had to do with his feelings for Eddie, he was never one for subtlety.

Stan rolls his eyes and hopes that they leave and have sex to release all that sexual tension in the air. The number of times he had to sit and listen to all of Richie's wet dreams about the certain hypochondriac he really, really hopes that they bone just so Richie doesn't fall back into that pattern. But then he thinks, _what if Richie tells me about the sex he's been having Eddie?! That would be way worse! I loved it when he wasn't talking to any of us!_

Ben and Bill look at each other knowingly. The look that Eddie's giving to Richie is the one that they both gave to Beverly in '89, no doubt about it. The only issue is, is that neither one of those boys will do anything about it and will just cuddle in the hammock as if there's no tension what so ever.

Mike smiles at them but looks down to the girl on his lap, completely oblivious to what is going on in front of her. He thinks about what her life would be like with Reddie as her parents but then again, Richie hasn't been the same Richie since he arrived yesterday and told them all he has a kid. This is a different, more responsible Richie and he feels like it would be like having two Eddie's as her parents instead of the one. Mke chuckles at the thought, careful to not bring the attention to himself.

The Losers all sit in silence, doing their own thing, just like they had done during their schooling lives, well after they met Ben, of course. "CRAP! Your engagement party!" Stan suddenly yells and Richie and Eddie jolt out of the hammock, ending with Eddie straddling Richie.

Mike instantly turns Naomi away from the sight and blocks her ears just as Richie states, "Wow, I love this particular view, especially when your mom is - "

"Beep beep Richie!" Stan blurts. "You have a freaking daughter, don't talk about that!"

"You're right, shoot!" Richie states and takes Naomi from Mike, helping her up the cold slippery ladder.

****

Stan, Naomi and Eddie file into Richie's car. "Great, I'm third-wheeling you guys," Stan groans.

"Well, we aren't actually - " Richie stops himself, looking at his daughter in the rearview mirror. "You and I need to talk, Eds."

"Your room as soon as we get there?" Eddie asks.

"Yes."

The car ride is silent except for Stan and Naomi's back and forth whispering, Richie takes Eddie's hand in his, intertwining their fingers together. He smirks at Eddie and brings Eddie's hand to his lips, kissing it lightly. Now the ball is, once again, in Eddie's court.

As he pulls up to in the driveway, behind his dad's car, Richie helps his daughter out of the car and send her and Stan to the front door leaving him and Eddie to jump in through his childhood bedroom's window. Eddie immediately takes a spot on the foot of Richie's bed while the tall man paces clearly trying to find the right words to use in this such circumstance.

"Okay, you called me your 'boyfriend' in front of your mother, then you act as if that didn't happen and today you and I cuddled. Eds?" Richie states. 

"You didn't give me a chance to say it back," Eddie replied. 

Richie's heart starts to beat faster, his pulse vibrates and echoes in his ear. This couldn't be happening? Eddie's walking closer and closer towards him. The tall man is frozen to the spot and Eddie wraps his arms around Richie's waist, hoping he'd get the hint (he doesn't).

Before he could say anything, he spots the mistletoe above his head by the open window. That's the hint that Richie needed, to know what Eddie's intentions are for that moment. He leans down to Eddie's level, dipping his head and places his lips onto Eddie's softly. They feel the same as they had back when he had kissed Eddie after graduation. Soft, warm and full. But this time Eddie kisses back, not wasting a single moment of it.

"Boys! It's time for the toast!" Maggie Tozier yells from the other side of the closed door.

"In a minute mom!" Richie calls back, "Eds if we do this, I have to know. Are you serious? I have a kid and if it isn't serious - " 

Eddie kisses him again, wanting, no, needing him to shut his mouth. "I want you Rich, I'm in this for the long haul. I don't care if you're famous or have a kid. I too have been in love with you since we were kids but you didn't give me the chance to tell you."

He knows that Eddie wouldn't dare use him as a fling or a person to just have sex with. If Eddie went out with someone, he better generally like them because he will forever be in it for the long haul. Eddie loves commitments, it's something his mother forbade him to do unless it was to medication.

Richie smiles and kisses him again before they leave the room to join the others.

The other Losers had gathered around the table with Wentworth and Maggie sitting at either end. "I see another congratulations are in order," Ben says. "Couldn't help yourselves, could you?"

"Thanks, Ben," Richie smiles and pulls Eddie's seat out for him. "But back to the engaged couple!"

During the toasts, Richie and Eddie couldn't help but steal glances at each other. 

The toasts are a blur for both men, neither of them paying any attention to what was said. All they both could agree on is not allowing any of the Losers to make a toast at their wedding. That is if they ever get married.


	3. Christmas Day (‘06)

Two years later Richie and Eddie are curled up on their couch watching _The Polar Express_ , with Naomi. “I can’t believe it’s our 2nd anniversary tomorrow,” Eddie whispers, careful to not disturb Naomi, knowing full well that she’ll get made if he disrupts her concentration on the film.

Richie smiles at his boyfriend, who's lying on top of Richie, and pecks his lips. “Dad, I’m tired,” Naomi says suddenly, after all, it is 11:30 pm.

”I’ll put you to bed,” Richie replies quietly.

”I was talking to Eddie,” Eddie and Richie both tense, the same shocked expression written upon their face. Richie nods at Eddie, giving him the all-clear to put his child to bed. Eddie walks the 8-year-old to her bedroom and makes sure she’s tucked in, nice and warm, before kissing her forehead good night. He turns on the soft star-shaped fairy lights that dangle down the wall in front of her bed and closes the door slightly, letting some of the light from the hallway seep in.

Eddie has never expected to be called ‘dad’, that was what scared him as soon as he and Richie told the young girl that they were dating. She hadn't up until now, he knows that Richie would never have told her to say that especially since Richie was opposed to the idea unless the two get married. Not to mention, Richie tensed when she called Eddie 'dad'.

”It’s midnight, Eds,” 

Eddie smiles muttering a ‘Merry Christmas’ against Richie’s chapped lips. The two men decide to watch _Love, Actually_ while putting the presents under the tree and both fall asleep on the couch, Richie, of course, being the little spoon, in Eddie's arms. 

****

When Naomi wakes up the following morning, she smiles at the two men asleep on the couch. But that doesn’t stop her from bouncing and shaking them awake, screaming ‘it’s Christmas! It’s Christmas’ over and over again until either man shows some sign of waking up. 

Richie and Eddie groan both turning to face the screaming girl. “What’s the time, baby?” Richie asks Eddie. The man next to him pulls his phone out from his pocket.

”8 o’clock,” Eddie replies.

”Coffee or OJ?”

”Coffee, babe,” Richie climbs over Eddie,

“Merry Christmas, Mimi.” Richie earns a hug from his daughter. "My famous Christmas hot chocolate?" The young girl squeals and jumps into one of the barstools by the island bench, patiently waiting for her hot chocolate.

“Merry Christmas Eddie,” Naomi says as Eddie hugs her from behind.

"Merry Christmas, cutie," Eddie replies groggily. He isn't a morning person if he could've, he would've slept in until noon but alas he was awoken by a sweet 8-year-old who in turn is a miniature Richie but far more tamed. With Maggie's disciplinary routine in place, Naomi is more reserved but still holds all of Richie's mannerisms. 

As Richie starts on the beverages he watches on as Naomi tells Eddie all about her dream, Eddie looks so interested in what she has to say just by the way he's sitting. Naomi then gets bored of that conversation and moves on to the tv show that some girl at school told her about. All Richie can think about is wanting another child but one that looks almost identical to Eddie, but that loops back 'round to what he's going to ask him later, during presents, an that only makes him increasingly nervous. 

The tiny black velvet box sits at the back of the tree, hidden from view, patiently waiting for Richie to propose to Eddie.

Richie, knowing full well where it is, keeps stealing glances between the tree and Eddie. The man, who is now telling jokes with Naomi and Richie couldn't help fall even further than he already has. Just to think that he didn't imagine he could fall even harder.

"Daddy? Presents?" Naomi asks Eddie, the word making Eddie uncomfortable but neither man could say anything to her. But little to Eddie's knowledge he's about to get the biggest surprise of his life.

The three of them gather around the tree and Richie hands all of Naomi's gifts to her, 5 from Richie and 5 from Eddie. She instantly tears the wrapping off of all of them and squeals a huge 'thank you' to the two men sitting beside her. All of Richie's gifts were books from the Famous Five series and the Little Women (though Richie thinks he may have to read it to her). Eddie had bought her practical things, like a basic Italian dictionary as Naomi had shown an interest in learning Italian and Eddie jumped at the chance and bought her some nice clothes as well. 

Next Eddie gave Richie his 5 presents, 2 came from Naomi. The young girl had picked up 2 of Bill's books that Richie didn't own and Eddie paid for them, Richie is quick to pull his daughter in for a quick hug and slowly opens Eddie's gifts. A new computer, since Richie had clumsily spilt coffee on his old one; another tie as Richie only owns 2; finally two tickets to New York. Since Eddie doesn't live with Richie, he normally flies out to be with Richie, that is if he isn't needed at the insurance firm that he works at. So, he figures that it's Richie's time to fly out to visit him during the next school holidays so that Naomi can come too. 

"Rich? You okay?" Eddie asks.

"Uhh, yeah I'm fine," Richie stammers not convincing Eddie at all.

Richie hands Eddie the first one which is the boxset of the tv show that Richie directs and stars in, as Eddie can't watch it on tv due to his crazy schedule (some days he works late and others he finishes early but still works at home). Before moving on to the big ones, Naomi hands him 2, a healthy eating recipe book and a joke book (courtesy of Richie who thinks Eddie needs some new jokes).

That's Richie's cue to stand up and grab the small box from the top of the tree and kneels back down on the one knee. "Yes!" Eddie screams.

"I didn't - " Richie starts.

"You don't have to, I will marry you Rich." Typical Eddie and Richie. Eddie surges forward and captures Richie's lips in his, raking his short fingers through Richie's long curly mop of hair.

"I love you," Richie says as Eddie pulls away. "But there are 2 more things." He pulls out a large envelope from under the tree. "If you had said no, then this would've been awkward." Eddie hesitantly takes the large yellow envelope from Richie's fist and opens it.

He gasps as he reads the cover letter that was written by Richie and attached to the paper at the back.

*

_Dear Eds,_

_This may but all seem like another practical joke to you but I can assure you it's not, it's very much real._

_If you're reading this then you have agreed to marry me which is probably the worst mistake of your life but oh well, congrats you mother fucker._

_Anyway, if she hasn't already then Naomi will probably start calling you 'dad' or something and I don't blame her. Watching you interact with her whenever you visit, brings tears to my eyes and I guess that's why I got you these forms. I want you to fully become Naomi's second dad, I love you so fucking much, hence the ring that is hopefully on your finger._

_So will you adopt her? She is my whole fucking world and I want you to be part of it as well, please make this a full family?_

_Love your one and only,_

_Richard Tozier_

*

"Is this ... Is this for real?" Eddie asks, Richie simply nods in response, too nervous to say anything more. The risk analysist simply looks towards the young girl and smiles widely. "Yes, Richie." 

Eddie takes a black pen from the coffee table and starts to fill out the form to fully become Naomi's second parent, once the two get married her official surname will be a hyphenated 'Tozier-Kaspbrak', well that is if Eddie decides against taking Richie's surname. Richie is so stunned that the sentences forming in his head stop and become mush, silencing him. His eyes are wide as saucers and mouth ajar. 

"I've thought a great deal that if I ever got married, I'd trash the whole Kaspbrak name," Eddie states.

"Really?" Richie asks.

"Yeah, it links me to the woman who abused me all my life so, if you're okay with it, I'd like to take on the Tozier name." Richie chokes on his saliva and inadvertently starts to tear up in absolute happiness.

With the first-ever gay marriage done in 2004, Richie knew that it is going to be normalised very soon. So they can't have it in a church, fine, they're not religious anyway, but they can get Bev to do it. Marriage licenses for same-sex couples would exist only in certain states, so it'd be a matter to get their marriage legalised there, it would be difficult and hold a lot of planning but with Eddie's knowledge and Richie's determination, they can do it.

"The final question of the day and I don't need an answer straight away, we can have more conversations later on but I'd like to get the ball rolling," Richie rambles. "I was wondering if you'd ever considered having kids? We can adopt or go through a surrogate."

With three big adult topics stated in front of Naomi in 15 minutes, opens a lot of questions but she can see that her dads are having a moment and decides she should keep her mouth shut and watch as the two become emotional. All she can understand is that she may be getting a little brother or sister in the future.

"Rich, I don't need to think, you have an answer, and it's, yes." 

He can't believe it, he honestly can't believe it. He's got a fiance, his daughter has another dad and he may be getting another kid one day. Unbelievable! "I think this calls for a celebration, my love! Champagne and orange juice, mimosas!" 

Eddie laughs at Richie's over the top excitement, he glances down at the ring still in the box. He slowly reaches for the silver band, running his finger around the front but something catches his eye. In the inside is an engraving, 'R + E', where had he seen that before?

"The Kissing Bridge?!" Eddie yelps aloud, Richie freezes, stopping himself halfway between Eddie and the kitchen. "That was you?" Richie nods. "I knew it! I fucking knew it!"

Richie laughs and continues over to the fridge, popping the expensive champagne that he got as a 'congratulations' from his best friend, John Mulaney when he won his first Emmy. He pours in the freshly squeezed orange juice into the two flutes fill with champagne and pours a small champagne flute of pure orange juice for Naomi so she didn't feel left out. He takes Naomi's over to her first so that he doesn't mix up the flutes before grabbing his and Eddie's. "To the best Christmas ever! And to the soon to be Edward Tozier." Richie toasts and knocks his flute against Eddie's and Naomi's.

****

A few weeks later the newly engaged couple decide to tell their friends and family of the news and how they have decided to move to New York. Richie had used his extensive paychecks to buy a large penthouse apartment that's close to the school that Naomi will go to after the Spring break and close to Eddie's and Richie's work. For the time being, Naomi and Richie still live in Portland as the apartment won't be ready until spring break when Eddie had booked the flights, except there won't be a return trip. Richie has already started to put things into storage that he wants to keep but doesn't use often and has thrown out things he or Naomi no longer needs.

With all their friends and family, now knowing, Richie takes to his twitter and Instagram to welcome Eddie to his fans after keeping him a solid secret for two whole years. They knew Richie was seeing someone with the cryptic tweets and shadow couple photos but they never saw a real photo of Eddie but today, they did. Sure there are a few fans that are a little disappointed but the majority are thrilled and even more so when they found out that Eddie is part of the Losers Club that Richie constantly mentions as well as Bill Denbrough. Bill and Richie share a small portion of fans who come from both fanbases and noticed that both men refused to mention Eddie's name after the Christmas period in '04, yet no one speculated that one of them was dating the once hypochondriac, only that maybe Eddie stopped being friends with them.

After all the announcements, Eddie goes back to his writing his letter of resignation when a ding from his computer notifies him that an email has come through. For the past 6 weeks, he's been patiently waiting for the notice to see if he's going to graduate law school. In Eddie fashion, he quickly opens his email and almost passes out, "Richie, I've graduated!" Eddie screams.

"No way!" Richie screams, racing over to his boyfriend, he looks at the email. "That's amazing! I'm so proud of you, baby." 

All his life he's wanted to do something that wasn't in risk/insurance or medicine. He didn't have an interest in education or architecture, like Ben, but he loves a good debate and immediately thought about Law. So while he works as in risk analysis unit at an insurance firm, he studied Law, not showing any sign of dropping out. He burnt himself out with all the stress he put himself under but he did what he had to do to pass Law and get out of a shitty job that doesn't pay well and hated with a passion.

And finally, all that hard work has paid off and is graduating Law school with honours?! Holy crap! He didn't think he'd do it but he did! And he has 6 jobs lined up that he can take as soon as he graduates.

"By the way Rich, I looked into that surrogate you found and spoke to the agency that she's a part of, I'm heading down now," Eddie says, "I'll pick Naomi up on the way back."

Eddie had done his research, on the whole, donating sperm thing and he's followed instructions (that hopefully are true), to make his sperm more likely to attach to the woman's egg. It's risky but it's worth a try especially since it's something that he and Richie want to try at least once before moving onto adoption.

"Sure thing, drive safe," Richie says and kisses his fiance goodbye. "Love you."

"Love you too." 

Richie smiles and texts his mom the great news about Eddie's graduation, too excited to wait for Eddie to come home to tell her himself. Maggie is thrilled that the other man, she thought of as another son, is pursuing his dream and not letting his past hold him back. 

****

2 hours later Eddie and Naomi walk through the door of Richie's apartment, Naomi's babbling about something that happened at school but the only thing that he can think of is his fiance donating his sperm for a surrogate. "Sorry baby, my mind was elsewhere, what happened?" Richie asks.

"I said that we made a bottle rocket for class today," Naomi says excitedly.

"Oooh, that sounds like a blast!" Richie exclaims.

"Rich, that's the worst dad joke I have ever heard you say!" Eddie states. "By the way, we just have to wait 9 months now, the woman was there when I was, so they did it straight away because it's _that_ part of the cycle." Eddie didn't want to say 'ovulation period' in front of Naomi in case she asks what it is and that whole conversation can wait another 4 years before the men sit her down and explain puberty to her. 

"So we'll know if she is around the 2nd-month mark as a definite?" Richie says.

"Yeah because most complications occur within the first month, we're still not in the clear until the 3rd or 4th month," Eddie explains, Richie had completely forgotten how pregnancy works ever since he had broken up with Sally 8 years ago. He couldn't have been more proud of himself when he chose his daughter over his girlfriend who wanted to forget the whole pregnancy thing ever happened and to continue dating Richie. But he couldn't.

Though the thought often crosses his mind, what if he chose Sally over Naomi? Would he have broken up with her and still ended up with Eddie? Or would he have married Sally instead? 

All he knows is that he’s got the family he’s always wanted. Great parents, gorgeous daughter, fantastic friends and a handsome ass fiancé who he bangs occasionally. And now he’s got a wedding to plan and another baby to plan for, as well as a growing career on both acting and comedy. 

He couldn’t be any happier.


End file.
